Sunday, September 28, 2008

Level-headed. Hot-headed. Serene-headed.


The concern about "state" or "government" that circles around questions like "Who should govern?" and "What must governments do?" is definitely older than any known attempts of scientification toward it. Plato used to think that states—of course with this he refers to ancient Greek city-states, not modern nation-states—should have been governed by philosophers, because, distinct from other citizens, these people are so knowledgeable that their insights surpass the unseen.

Kranenburg, a Dutch thinker, used to say that, "de eerste koning is een gelukkig soldaat", which literally translates into, "the first king is a lucky soldier." Marx used to believe that proletariat—a scientified notion of "common people"—should rule the world. Those are partial, departmental, and truncated thinking, I would say, that are typical for "western" thoughts; which were unfortunately the most familiar way of thinking for most.

In most part of the globe, however, people used to think that—and most importantly, live in a life where—there are three basic functions, i.e. (i) those who talks to God (or "gods"), so that God talks back to them; (ii) those who raise arms, whenever there are threats or dangers to anyone; and, (iii) those who commune with mother-nature, so that she will bless anyone with her bounty. These functions might have developed long ago in distant times, perhaps as early as the earliest development of distinctly huge-brained ape-like bipedal creatures.

At first, all of them, as all predators are, were used to quick rigorous actions and lots of rest—these are the hot-headed. Thus, there were some others who inclined more to routine hard work, the earliest farmers or the foragers—these are the level-headed. Finally, some others began to realize that Life is way larger than just these lofty sky and vast earth, where they were born and dead—these are the serene-headed. All these kinds of individuals nevertheless lived in the same pack.

The concept of "function" must be boldly underlined, because there is a widespread misunderstanding that these functions are hierarchical. In fact, they are three equally strong pillars that together support the whole world of creations, so that mortals can witness Absolute Truth as truths. In such a life, a priestess never thinks that she is the most important person of all, for she can hardly do anything, for instance, if a pack of hungry wolves should rampage her monastery; and surely her corporeal existence will perish should nobody provide her with alms from time to time.

A warrior has no reason to boast his muscle-bound physique, for he must constantly repair his weary soul every time after slaying anything and find legitimacy to it; and surely his muscles will wither should granaries become empty. A peasant never claims any fame for having "invented" new variety of grain that yields sooner and tastes better, for a regular consolation from drudgery is nevertheless essential to get him going; and surely he will be left helpless should barbarians trample over his fields.

In this sense, there is no need to separate "state" or "government" from anything, because the one who should "govern" is basically one self, and what should one do is basically to "govern" one self, disregarding whether one's head is level, hot, or serene. This way, human being and mankind altogether should never be understood as detached from the Nature that embraces them, because Nature and her merciful selflessness is a reflection of An Almighty Self that is the true Governor of everything, as He pleases. Some people might say that this is a "theocentric, totalitarianistic" way to perceive state. I would say that this is the only way to understand any state of affairs so as not to damage human's physiology and psychology.

Alas, some devil-inspired foul beings managed to implant "confidence" into rotten souls of corrupt clergies, disgraceful nobles, and dissilusioned peasants in Europe some centuries ago, and later they called such confidence a shift of paradigm from theocentrism to anthropocentrism. Human, as much as the earth, was never meant to be the center of anything, no wonder why we found increasing number of human physiological and psychological "disintegration" nowadays.

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